


braid her hair like you would her heart

by spacemagic



Series: daughter of the suns [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: (which never actually occurs), Anakin is a girl, And everyone keeps touching her hair, Drabble, Ficlet, Gen, Trans Female Character, f!Anakin, f!obi wan, references/mentions of sexual assault, she doesn't like it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 01:37:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6033328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacemagic/pseuds/spacemagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They look at her strangely on Tatooine. Like she shouldn't be there. Like she should be theirs. Meat.</p><p>She's glad to leave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	braid her hair like you would her heart

 

They all look at her so strangely. As if she shouldn’t be there at all.

She feels naked.

 

 

-

 

She runs away from herself from the moment she could walk. She’s all rags, all engine oil, everything spilling loose, nothing pulled back.

‘Ani. Your hair’s such a mess. Tch.’

Mother fusses over such light and insignificant things. She parts her daughter’s hair into three gold sections and pulls them together softly.

‘It looks pretty on you.’

 

 

-

 

The markets smell like meat in cages. It’s midday.

‘Don’t you _touch_ her.’

There are fingers in her hair. In years to come she’d later realise that this was a legitimate business transaction where she was up for inspection by a prospective buyer.

‘She’s not _yours_.’

Anakin was smaller than she could remember when she realised you can’t hide from the sun.

 

 

-

 

They look at her. They look at her like she’s meat.

 

 

-

 

'Ani, stop twitching.'

'Twitching?'

She's in the back of his shop, recalibrating the exhaust sensors of this neat X5 engine someone dumped here.

'Good girls don't fidget, you know.'

He's not even vaguely interested.

 

 

-

 

They say it's harmless. To look.

They just want to touch her.

Her mother keeps hold of her hand and tells her to look down.

 

 

-

 

 

 

One morning Ani cuts off all of her hair with a kitchen knife. It belongs to no one.

It feels good.

 

 

-

 

There are things they do to girls on Tatooine. Things you don’t speak about.

When Qui-Gon finds her half-grown, she knows she can’t ever go back. She whispers thank you to every single star in the sky she can count.

She cries only for her mother.

 

 

-

 

 

‘Do you _have_ to braid it?’

‘It’s customary.’

She nods stiffly. She still can’t bring herself to say _master._

They sit.

Her fingers pull everything so much tighter and neater.

 

 

-

 

They all look at her so strangely.

 

 

-

 

Left over centre.

Ow.

Right over left.

Ow.

Centre over right.

‘ _Ow._ ’

For once, she doesn't conceal her irritation.

‘It wouldn’t hurt nearly so much if you just stopped fidgeting.’

Anakin knows she probably shouldn't laugh. It wouldn't please her new master.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> for some reason I keep writing about Anakin's hair. 
> 
> this is (possibly) the first section of a three-part series. the second will tackle attack of the clones, and the third revenge of the sith, and how something as simple as a different gender affects it. 
> 
> EDIT 2/11/16: in the second fic in this series, I changed by mind on obi-wan's gender in this AU, making her a woman. I've changed the pronouns here to reflect this. meant to edit this months ago and didn't which is my bad.


End file.
